Why Inflict Our Own Vendors with Apartheid Municipal Bylaws?

The informal economy is the heartbeat of daily survival in Windhoek. It feeds families, creates self-employment, and absorbs thousands of people excluded from the formal job market.

Yet despite this reality, the City of Windhoek continues to enforce outdated municipal bylaws in ways that criminalise poverty and punish hardworking street vendors.

This was demonstrated recently when informal trading structures in Windhoek West and Dorado Valley were forcibly removed by City Police. The municipality declared gazebos to be the “approved” structure for street vending, forcing vendors to give up their self-built stalls.

Anger and confusion have been aroused by this action, especially since the majority of these vendors are legitimate business owners and clients of the municipality.

Despite paying unexplained monthly trading fees to the City of Windhoek, between N$221 to as much as N$1 600 per month, vendors say they are treated like trespassers in their own country.

A critical question must be asked: what is the basis of these fees?
Why, if vendors are paying rent or trading fees, are there still no basic municipal services like water, sanitation, or proper trading infrastructure at these sites? And why are vendors expected to comply, pay, and submit while the municipality fails to provide even the most basic services and a sense of dignity in return?

Even more troubling is the lack of a clear, formally adopted street vendors’ policy. There has been no council resolution properly communicated to vendors, no structured workshops to educate informal traders on bylaws, and no inclusive engagement aimed at developing and regulating the informal economy. Instead, law enforcement is repeatedly deployed, creating cycles of confrontation, harassment, and instability.

This approach reflects a painful historical pattern: laws enforced without consultation, control without inclusion, and authority wielded against the poor rather than used for development.

One is forced to ask: Is this not another form of apartheid, this time economic and administrative?

Bylaws that do not reflect the current socio-economic realities of Windhoek cannot be enforced as if nothing has changed. Informal trading is no longer a temporary phenomenon; it is a permanent pillar of the urban economy. Attempting to suppress it through policing rather than policy is both unjust and economically reckless.

The Proposed Way Forward:

To restore dignity, order, and fairness, the City of Windhoek must urgently adopt the following measures:

1.⁠ ⁠Establish a Comprehensive Street Vendors Database
All vendors who pay daily or monthly fees must be registered, documented, and issued with official permits that allow them to operate without harassment or arbitrary removal.

2.⁠ ⁠Provide Standard Municipal Trading Structures
The municipality must design and provide standardised stalls suitable for different types of trade such as fruit sellers, kapana vendors, clothing traders, and others. Payment to the municipality must guarantee access to these structures.

3.⁠ ⁠Accommodate Temporary and Seasonal Trading
Clear mechanisms must be developed to allow seasonal and temporary traders to operate legally and without fear, especially during peak economic periods.

4.⁠ ⁠Develop and Adopt a Street Vendors’ Policy
A clear, inclusive policy must be developed to guide, regulate, and protect the informal economy. This policy must be shared, explained, and thoroughly workshopped with vendors themselves.

5.⁠ ⁠Provide Basic Municipal Services
Every registered vendor who pays to operate must have guaranteed access to clean water, proper sanitation, and regular refuse collection. Expecting payment without providing these basic services is not regulation – it is exploitation.

This matter must be elevated as the first agenda item at the first city council meeting next year. Street vendors are not criminals; they are mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who contribute daily to the Namibian economy under extremely difficult conditions. Respecting them is not charity, it is justice.

A city that fights its own people cannot develop. A city that listens, plans, and includes can thrive. Windhoek must choose policy over policing, dignity over destruction, and inclusion over oppression. Justice before harassment!

*Sem Billy David is a youth leader and advocate.

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